


one, two, three, four, I declare a gauntlet war

by doofusface



Series: drabbles misc [2]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Drabble, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Friendship, Gen, Love Confessions, MMMMMBOY here we go, Sad with a Happy Ending, Time Loop, Time Travel, i guess? i guess whatever
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-30 05:57:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15745665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/doofusface/pseuds/doofusface
Summary: “Peter?” Ned asks quietly, gulping. “Is it…?”“I don’t know,” Peter replies, kinda spaced out, kinda not there.They’re close enough to the windows, though.They’re close enough to see that stupid ship come into orbit.





	one, two, three, four, I declare a gauntlet war

**Author's Note:**

> i dont even know what kind of trauma i wrote so let's be safe and say tw ptsd but really just general trauma n anxiety?? maybe???? bc im not sureeee

It’s one of those Rules of the Universe, MJ guesses.

Gravity keeps us on the ground.

The Sun rises in the east.

Peter Parker’s destined to die.

Like, cheap shot, Universe, but it’s happened four times now.

Screw Thanos.

* * *

The first round is the first.

Nothing else to say about it except it’s what everyone expects—the Avengers and Then Some responding to a giant metal hoop of alien origin.

Peter is under “Then Some”.

He jumps off the school bus and swings away and assumes Ned’s distraction works on everyone—which isn’t fair and is kind of insulting, because she thought they were friends and he knew better than to underestimate her peripheral vision.

Also, Peter still has her favorite pen, and she’s gonna kick his ass if he doesn’t return it.

Preferably later.

Tonight.

Alive, not through a distraught, shell-shocked Ned.

Not the way it actually happens.

* * *

The second time is because time travel is apparently a thing, and _everyone_ remembers.

Peter is kinda jittery on the bus and it’s like…two seconds before everything’s about to go down, because his head is still down and her bookmark is in the middle of her book, and Ned’s still chatting with Sally.

Then Ned stops mid-sentence, and so does the chatter from everyone else.

MJ closes her book, looks out the window.

Peter stands up first, peers out, checks the sky.

Then Ned.

Then Abe.

MJ thinks, _maybe_ , because there’s…nothing.

No floating metal.

No hovering conqueror’s ambassador’s ship.

The bus makes its way across the bridge, and they make it to MoMA, and Ned’s shaking a little bit, because, again, _everyone remembers_.

“Can I ask you something?” he says, and it sounds a little scared, and he _looks_ a lotta scared, and she pinches her own arm and says:

“You’re not crazy. I think. If you are, so am I.”

So Ned relaxes.

Peter’s behind them, hands rubbing his arms or wringing together or checking his own pulse. He asks, “Are you…are you guys okay?”

“Are _you_?” MJ asks, brows furrowed. “Something’s not right.”

He gulps. “Did…did  you two—”

“ _RUN_!” someone screams—one of the museum guards, eyes crazed and pushing through their class. “THEY’RE _HERE_! THEY’RE _BACK_ AGAIN!”

“Peter?” Ned asks quietly, gulping. “Is it…?”

“I don’t know,” Peter replies, kinda spaced out, kinda not there.

They’re close enough to the windows, though.

They’re close enough to see that stupid ship come into orbit.

MJ’s beside Peter, and Ned clings him from his other side, hands stretched a little bit extra trying to get her in there, too.

It’s the three of them not running with the rest of the crowd. The three of them with their sides pressed to the glass. The three of them wondering if the end comes out a little different this time.

“I _have_ to go,” Peter whispers, muffled through their limbs. It’s small.

 _He’s_ small.

Just a kid.

They’re all _just kids_.

“You—” MJ starts in a low voice, but she can’t say the word; she squeezes his shoulder where her hand finds itself, conveniently. “You _went_ , didn’t you?”

“I have to _go_ , guys,” Peter repeats, feigning confidence. It’s the first time he uses his strength on them, prying them off as gently as possible. “I’m sorry. I love you, guys. I’ll be back.”

And, obviously, that doesn’t happen.

* * *

The third was the run-through that hurts the most.

Why?

Because the third is when it’s backed up to a year and a half before, and there’s this uneasable _tension_ in the air.

Comes with knowing the date of your death, or the date of everyone else’s death.

Ned and MJ visit May and Peter as much as possible, because they just _don’t know_.

When will it happen this time?

Before? After?

Never?

 _Now_?

“I love you,” MJ says one day, when it’s raining and she’s alone with Peter, because Ned’s been telling her there’s no point in waiting if he’s going to die in a year and a half anyway.

Peter kinda flounders, definitely blinks a whole lot more times than necessary.

She adds: “Or. Technically. I’m _going_ to fall in love with you. Sometime next year. Feb-ish? But I already know. So.”

“I fall in love with you in November,” Peter blurts, dazed.

There's a teeny smile that she lets him see. “Fancy that.”

“Uh-huh.”

She’s got a sad, dimmed light in her eyes when she looks at him. “How much time do we have?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

* * *

They have Ned and May around as many times as possible, their hands intertwined under or over the table, kisses stolen when nobody’s looking, when they’re rounding a corner.

They have a year and eight months, which means they’d thought they were safe.

* * *

It happens right before Ned can put up the star on his family’s tree, right after MJ helps her dad shove the _au gratin_ into the oven, right when Peter passes May her present.

It’s a bleary feeling that comes in the moment.

That they can’t explain.

That just… _is_.

May drops the little necklace, Ned drops the star.

MJ and her dad share a look, and her mom and sister rush downstairs.

Peter looks out the window.

He’s tired of this, and he tells Ned and MJ just that on the comms as he swings outside, repeating how much he loves them and having Karen and then F.R.I.D.A.Y. record it so they can pass it to May later.

Just in case.

* * *

The sucky part is he almost makes it. Quill doesn’t get a chance to mess up the plan because they wrap him up somewhere _just in case_ , and they get the gauntlet off.

That’s the _suckiest part_.

It’s _actually off_.

Until one of Thanos’ lackeys shows up from outta _nowhere_ , disrupting the plan, distracting the team.

And it’s back on.

And…

_Snap._

* * *

The fourth is when MJ and May and Ned and _everyone_ realizes this is just how it’s supposed to happen.

They’re _supposed_ to lose half the population.

Sally and Flash are supposed to turn into ash by the sculptures on the third floor of MoMA.

MJ’s mom is supposed to call from her office, supposed to tell her her dad’s gone.

Ned’s brother is supposed to rush in from his office two blocks over, supposed to tell him to stay put, because he’s going to check the hospital for their parents.

May’s supposed to be on the floor, an ache in her chest too real for the fourth time to be anything less than death while living.

They’re supposed to live through it, they realize, because a month later the people are back.

A month later, they think to themselves, _We are right where we’re supposed to be_.

And Peter comes home.

And someone says something on the news.

And May takes four months to let go of her only family.

And Ned is half there and half at home, because he doesn’t know anymore.

And MJ is in her room more often than not, taking calls and answering texts, but not leaving unless she has to.

So they’re all a little off.

They all need a little breather.

* * *

“You haven’t stepped out in two months, Peter,” MJ says, flat on her belly, surrounded by half-finished sketches thrown around on loose pages on her bed.

“ _I visited you yesterday_ ,” Peter says, not even looking at the camera. He’s lying on his back, playing with a stress ball, mop of hair facing the screen.

“ _As You-Know-Who_ ,” Ned says, fidgeting with a Rubik’s cube. “ _You should._ ”

“ _I don’t know._ ”

“I’ll go with you guys to the park if you go on patrol,” MJ barters. She scrunches her face down at her current drawing, makes a _bleh_ sound, and tosses it over to the far end of her bed.

“ _I’ll drive_ ,” Ned adds. “ _And park. And jaywalk._ ”

“I think we want him to help the community, not just save you over and over again.”

“ _It’s like training wheels!_ ”

“Hmm. True.”

“ _May thinks I threw out the suit_ ,” Peter says, turning over.

Ned snorts. “ _May’s smarter than that, dude._ ”

Peter sighs, flopping down below the camera. His voice sounds half-muffled, dirty noise finding its way to the laptop’s mics. “ _Yeah. She is._ ”

“Just step outside,” MJ coaxes gently. “Hell, I’ll hold your hand if you want. Inside a window or something, though—don’t wanna paint a target on myself.”

“ _Maybe I can fake-save both of you?_ ”

“Sure—Ned?”

“ _I’m game!_ ”

MJ nods. “All in favor of adjourning this meeting?”

Peter pats his arm twice.

Ned yawns, giving them a thumbs up. “ _Yeah. School tomorrow._ ”

MJ laughs a little. “Huh. School.”

“ _I’m actually really glad they didn’t push it back_ ,” Peter confesses, propping himself up on his elbows. “ _Something to do._ ”

“That’s why they did it, nerd,” she says.

He cracks a grin. “ _I know_.”

“ _G’night, guys,_ ” Ned says, waving away.

“Night, derps.”

“ _Night._ ”

* * *

The fourth is the time Peter Parker dies, and they don’t.

The fourth is the time he comes back.

And stays.

And loves MJ.

And grows old.

The fourth is the one that makes all the other inevitables worth it, even if sometimes Ned calls them in the middle of the night to _make sure_ , and MJ breaks into a cold sweat when she wakes up from a dream— _nightmare?_ —that she can’t remember, and Peter never _really_ gets over his fear of traversing space, and May sometimes thinks every hug with Peter is their last.

The fourth is when the Universe explains why heroes and civilians and villains die and come back, why tampering with time is…not suggested.

It’s when they all learn to fear a little more.

And there, where they have to fight that fear?

It’s how they learn to be brave.

It’s how they learn to _live_.

**Author's Note:**

> there are a Lot of little drabbles that wont make it to finished fics because i just wrote them for kicks and they're probably gonna be posted in the coming days welpppp (having trouble keeping my attention span on one thing for the last few months hence these short things instead of actual plots ayyyyy)
> 
> ya anyway God bless, ilu, comment pit is always open and so is my ask at doofwrites on tumblr!!


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